Running Away
by uncannyfanfiction
Summary: She never imagined she'd meet her soulmate on the day of her wedding. AU Gruvia


**Author's Note:** Due to time constraints and my writing needing major improvements I am commissioning someone else to write this fanfic. This will allow me to publish a better quality story and timely for your enjoyment. However please keep in mind I am still creating the storyline off my ideas.

**Disclaimer:** AU Gruvia. Inspired by the asian drama _Accidentally in Love_. I do not own Fairy Tail.

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The morning sun peers through the window of Juvia's grandiose room, though the beauty of the day's weather does little to help the woman's nerves. She sits as patiently as she can on her luxury queen-sized bed, bouncing her hands on her knees as she awaits Gajeel.

A few weeks prior, her longtime friend and employee of her father pulled her aside once he heard the news of her engagement coming up. He could tell by the look on Juvia's face that she was not at all interested in marrying off into some random family just for monetary gain, so Gajeel and Juvia conspired along with Juvia's acquaintance-turned-bride decoy. The trio came up with a plan to help Juvia escape her unwanted fate and now here she was, nervously fiddling with her diamond-encrusted ball gown-style wedding dress. Juvia gets up to admire herself in her mirror, and while she can admit the dress is rather beautiful, the beauty of it is soured by the fact that she was meant to wear this for someone she didn't know anything about.

She sighs to herself, disappointed in the turn of events, but before she can begin to mop the door creaks behind her. She turns her head back and locks eyes with ruby red irises, instantly recognizing it as Gajeel. He closes the door behind him and walks up to her, holding a book bag out toward her. She looks at him unsurely and he rolls his eyes, shoving the bookbag into her arms. She grabs onto it and holds it tightly before swinging the book bag over her shoulder and slipping her arms into both of the straps.

"Are you sure about this, Gajeel? You could get in trouble with Father and-"

"It will be fine, woman. I've worked here for years, so as long as we follow the plan then he'll have no reason to distrust me, alright? Now, c'mon, we have to hurry," Gajeel replies. Despite his rather brusque response, Juvia's known the man for years and realizes this is his attempt at soothing her worries. Besides, they've already come so far, so it's not like she can really back out anyway, and truthfully, she didn't want to. Marrying a complete and utter stranger was not what she wanted to do with her life and she greatly appreciated Gajeel's understanding of her predicament and willingness to help her. A soft smile graced her lips as she throws her arms around Gajeel, pulling the grumpy man in for a tight hug.

"Thank you, Gajeel," the girl says, though her words are slightly muffled since she spoke into his chest. Gajeel stiffens, never really being all that comfortable with physical affection. He awkwardly pats her back and sighs before replying.

"I already said it's no problem, alright? You don't gotta hug me," the man says, slightly annoyance and discomfort twinging his voice. Juvia eventually pulls away, still smiling before the reality of her situation sets back in. She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, preparing herself for what is to come.

"Enough about me," Gajeel says as he looks at the girl with worry clear in the furrow of his brow, "Are you gonna be alright with this? No offense, but you're sort of a trust fund baby. How're you gonna make it out on your own?"

"Juvia's not offended, you're absolutely right. It will probably be hard at first, but Juvia wants to try! Mother may not like it, but Juvia doubts she'll be too mad as long as Juvia actually makes it on Juvia's own. Besides, Juvia just can't justify marrying some stranger, it feels _wrong_. Juvia knows it's for Juvia's family and in memory of Juvia's parents' marriage, but Juvia still doesn't want to."

Gajeel nods his head firmly and Juvia and the man share one last look before she leaves, closing the door behind her. She steps into the grandeur hallway, the marble floors beneath her clacking as her heels made contact with the well-polished surface. The expansive hall almost seems to go on forever, with murals from famous painters, beautifully carved ionic stone columns reminiscent of ancient Greece, and bust sculptures lining the corridor.

A few guests litter the hallway and Juvia greets them with the perfect, smile, posture, and elegance expected of an heiress. After what felt like an eternity, the bride-to-be waving and curtsying toward any familiar faces, Juvia saw the guest room come into view. Before she could rush toward the room, her grandfather steps out from an intersecting hall, clearly frantically looking around for her. Just before he spots her, Juvia opens the door of a nearby hall closet and tosses her bag inside, shutting the mahogany door as soon as her grandfather begins walking toward her.

"Juvia! Where have you been?! The ceremony is about to start and you haven't even gone downstairs yet," her grandfather says, frustration and disappointment leaking through his tone.

"Sorry, Grandfather," Juvia says as she racks her brain for an excuse, " Juvia was just… heading to the guest room to retrieve something."

Her grandfather looks at her, his doubt obvious as he smiles gently at her, his eyes scrunched and his wrinkles emphasizing his suspicion of her poorly thought out excuse.

"Listen, Juvia… I know you're not all that excited about the wedding, but remember that this is for your mother, so it's important nothing goes wrong, okay?"

"Juvia knows," Juvia replies sadly, casting her gaze to the floor as she struggles to meet her grandfather's eyes knowing that she's about to cause a lot of stress for the man. Mistaking it as her begrudgingly conceding to her fate, her grandfather pushes her hair away from her face and kisses her forehead.

"I don't like this whole arranged marriage thing much either, but we can't let your mother down."

Juvia hums in response, still unable to look him in the eyes, Her grandfather turns around and walks off, disappearing around the corner. Juvia sighs heavily as she opens the mahogany door beside her and pulls her backpack out of the room, quietly closing the door as she eyes the bag in her hands with slight hesitation.

_'Juvia feels bad, but… Juvia knows he'll forgive Juvia for this one day, Juvia's sure of it…'  
_

With that thought in mind, Juvia strengthens her resolve and heads toward the guest room, turning the doorknob as she goes into the room. The only other person in the room is a lone girl, her quietly sitting in a chair as she bounces her head to an imaginary tune. As soon as the girl locks eyes with Juvia, she stands up and walks toward her, the girl exchanging knowing glances since they both knew they weren't really here for small talk. Juvia pulls an envelope full of money out of her bag and hands it to her bride decoy, the girl slipping the large envelope into her dress that bore a striking resemblance to Juvia's. The girl hums happily, glad to have received her payment as she pulls her light ivory-colored veil over her face.

Juvia gives the girl an inspecting glance, not noticing any reason as to why someone would realize it's her before she had the chance to getaway. Once she's satisfied, the girls silently leave the room and Juvia closes the door behind them. The girls immediately begin heading in the opposite direction, the decoy heading toward the wedding ceremony and Juvia heading toward the courtyard.

Juvia feels her feet begin to ache as she continues to walk, but she ignores the dull pain in favor of continuing to sneak around the large house, careful to not arouse any suspicion. Believe it or not, it is actually rather hard being discreet in heels while carrying a heavy book bag and holding up her ball gown-style wedding dress to avoid tripping. Honestly, her grandmother is a rather powerful man and has guards stationed all around the house. Most of them are in the garden, but there are still a few gun-wielding bodyguards littered throughout the building, making her mission all the more difficult. Thankfully, Gajeel had made sure to inform her of where all of the guards would be and at what time, so despite the difficulty of the situation, Juvia is still able to navigate the situation.

She continues to tiptoe down the corridor until she happens upon what she assumes the hidden side door Gajeel had told her about. The slight discoloration of the section of the wall was very faint and almost unnoticeable. Now that Juvia was looking for it she is rather surprised she never noticed it all her years of living here. Her grandfather had it installed many years ago for guards to be able to get in and out of the building in case of needing to defend the house, so Juvia had never really _needed_ to know about it until now. Whenever she saw guards positioned there before she figured they were just keeping watch of the general vicinity, but know she knows it was to monitor the door. She feels around the wall until it clicks and the door slides open, the girl slipping inside as the door automatically closes behind her.

She peers down and sees a man unconsciously slumped against the wall, his body mostly hidden by some bushes. Despite Gajeel having told her beforehand that he'd be slipping some sleeping powder into the guard's flask, Juvia still felt her heart jump into her throat at the sight of the man. The drug Gajeel must have been some powerful stuff considering that the guard looked half dead and wasn't at all bothered by the branches of the bush he was hidden behind poking at his face and the little insects crawling on his skin.

Juvia can't help but shudder in response to the sight, but she quickly snaps out of her momentary disgust to head toward where her getaway car should be. She shuffles around with her head down and her back turned so her bookbag would cover as much of her dress as possible. As soon as the abundance of cars come into view, despite them still being a fair distance away, Juvia clutches her chest as she sighs in relief. Her moment of peace is short-lived as she hears a hoard rushed footsteps through an open window and an urgent "Find the bride!" echo throughout the courtyard.

'_Damn, Juvia wasn't fast enough!'_

She picks up her pace as she quickly heads toward the cars, careful to keep her body mostly hidden behind the other vehicles as she searched for the getaway car Gajeel had gotten for her. Her heart thrums in her ears as she hears footsteps getting closer and closer, her anxieties multiplying tenfold as she contemplated the possibility of getting caught. Her apprehension kicks her adrenaline into overdrive as she immediately begins running, her pace getting faster and faster as she repeatedly whipped her head around, desperately searching for the getaway car and to see if the guards were gaining upon her. Her deep blue eyes settle on the car nearest to the mansion's gate.

"There she is!"

The footsteps behind her getting louder only motivate the girl to move even faster as she bolts toward the car, grabbing the keys out of the bookbag and unlocking the car doors. She quickly zips the bookbag and throws it into the passenger seat as she gets into the driver's seat, shoving the key into the ignition and turning it. The car's engine has a low, muffled hum as it begins to heat up.

"Close the gate!"

Juvia slams her foot on the accelerator, speeding toward the gate as it begins to close. She barely makes it, the gate scratching the bumper of her car, though she's too excited to care. Excitement, fear, thrill, and curiosity of her entirely new situation fill her veins as she continues to speed down the road. She can't help but cheer as she navigates through the twists and turns of the ridiculously long entry road into her mansion...well, her _former_ mansion.

"Yes! Yes! Juvia did it!"

Her enthusiasm is quickly cut short when she notices familiar black cars merging from the now open gate and it does not take long for her to figure that the guards are beginning to follow her and will soon be hot on her tail.

"Dammit," the girl mutters under her breath. She begins speeding up, dangerously weaving through traffic once she makes her way onto the road, glancing back every so often to see if she was being pursued and being disappointed each time she realized they were still hot on her tail. She eventually turns into an empty street then quickly realizes it leads to a dead-end, the foliage behind the DEAD END sign fluttering the slight breeze. Juvia clicks her tongue before slamming on her brakes, bringing her car to a halt. The guards' cars were stopped by a red light, but as soon as they turn onto the street Juvia knows it'll be over for her.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

As the girl curses harshly under her breath, she quickly unbuckles her seatbelt and snatches her book bag out of the passenger seat, flinging her car door open as she steps into the outdoors. Not wanting to waste a single moment, she begins to sprint as soon as she sets foot onto the dark asphalt, ignoring to close the car door behind her. The bookbag weighs heavily in her arms so she quickly puts it on her back and continues to dash into the unknown woods. Twigs snap beneath her feet as she dashes through the foliage, but she can hear the slamming of car doors and yells of guards behind her.

Juvia picks up the pace as she runs with all her might, her heart thrumming in her ears and her lungs working hard as she weaves between trees, her heels falling off as she stumbles a bit and then keeps on. Despite her attempts to hold up her dress from the dirt, she can't prevent her ball-gown style wedding dress being dragged through the dirt, but she honestly doesn't care much.

The woman runs until she can run no longer and then some, her eventually stopping as she is out of breath and completely exhausted. The girl leans against a tree and slumps to the ground as she regains her breath. As she recuperates, she listens for any unnatural snapping of branches or calls for her name, but all she hears is the silence of the woods. She smiles to herself as she continues to huff and puff, the girl eventually getting to her feet once she is able to breathe steadily once more.

Juvia honestly hadn't considered where exactly her path would lead to, so the girl is quite lucky when she only has to wander around for a bit longer to hear the familiar sound of a city's daily hubbub. She steps out of the woods and is met with a few stares, some people probably wondering why she's in a wedding dress and an absolutely filthy one at that, but them not caring enough to question her directly about it. Such is the way of city folk.

The girl eventually stumbles upon a mesmerizing building, her heart still beating a bit fast from all her running and the girl still panting a bit under her breath, but her mind completely captivated by the structure in front of her.

'_Mother and Father… Juvia wonders if they got married in a building like this… When Juvia was younger Juvia asked Father why they didn't just get married in our home since it was so pretty already and he just told Juvia that Mother didn't __**want**__ to do it at home.'_

Her eyes continue to wander over the elegantly structured building until they settle on a large window a few feet above her. She takes a step back and then looks up, gasping a bit under her breath as she sees herself. Her face is sweaty and dirty, her previously pristine makeup now suffocating her skin as her sweat mixes with the powders and dirt. Her beautiful white ball gown is now almost a taupe color all over, random chunks of dirt and twigs sticking to her clothing and there even seems to be some stray leaves in her hair.

"Oh my… Juvia didn't realize," the girl mutters in awe, not completing her sentence as she resolves to go get changed. Her first order of business as a regular civilian meant not drawing a ridiculous amount of attention to herself and her getup combined with her messy state was no way to go about doing that. As she ponders where she'll be able to get changed while still pondering her parents' marriage in the back of her mind, she hears shuffling come from a door a few feet for her. She quietly approaches it and almost jumps out of her skin when a young and rather handsome man comes bursting out of the building. His spiky black hair shuffles in the breeze he made with his rather panicked speed, a few guards flying past her as they pursue the boy with unrivaled vigor.

Juvia chuckles under her breath as she observes the boy run away, finding the likeness of their situation rather funny. Just as she's about to turn her attention toward where she'd go now, she feels a light bulb go off in her head as she realizes the spiky-haired man had given her the perfect idea. The azure haired girl grabs the entrance to the fancy building and sighs in relief when the door opens with no lock, barcode, or anything of the sort. She's a bit surprised by the almost daring lack of security, the concept is foreign to her since her mansion was almost always lined with guards even when she was a child.

Brushing the thought from her mind, Juvia continues into the building, though her journey to sneak is interrupted once again when she notices a wedding ceremony is being held in the building. Juvia can't tell if she should laugh or be slightly miffed by the irony of it all, the girl ultimately rolling her eyes and smiling a bit as she looks around for an empty room to change _out_ of her wedding dress. Her deep blue irises eventually settle on a door that is ever so slightly ajar, so she walks into the room and immediately closes and locks the door. She looks around and notices that it is nothing but a dressing room, though she's unsure why it's placed near the entrance of all places. Perhaps it's for people meant who serve drinks and snacks at the reception to put on their uniform? Whatever it is, Juvia doesn't care much to figure out all the intricacies of the building since she really just wants to get out of there.

She slowly peels the muddy and slightly damp dress off of her body and sets it on a nearby chair, careful to not let the wet mud on the dress touch the fairly expensive-looking furniture. She also takes off her body shaper and sighs in relief, glad her chest isn't being constricted by the spandex any longer. She sets that next to the dress as he stretches and feels a few of her bones pop, then she looks down to observe the damage the forest had done. Surprisingly, she doesn't have any scratches despite having body-slammed a few trees and stepped on plenty of huge fallen branches as she ran only a few moments ago. The only mess that is apparent are the few splotches of dirt and the fact that she was really really sweaty. Her makeup is also beginning to be rather irritating on her face, so she looks around the room to see if there are any wipes or something she can clean herself up with. Thankfully, there's a bathroom in the dressing room, so she picks up her bag and leaves her wedding dress on the chair as she heads into the washroom.

Once she's inside, she lets the weighted door close behind her as she looks in the mirror and momentarily admires the rather well-kept bathroom. The sinks are all of a modern sleek design and the gray marble of the sink feels cool to the touch. Juvia sets the bag on the expansive sink countertop and grabs a few paper towels, setting them down on the chilled countertop as she turns on the faucet, the warm water feeling relieving against her palms as she feels the dirt, grime, and sweat melt off of her skin.

Juvia sighs in contentment at the feeling, smiling to herself as she enjoys the stream of water for a moment, then cupping her hands to capture the warmness and splash it on her face. She rubbed gently, careful to work her fingers where she felt the most dirt or heavy makeup. Thankfully, she hadn't had to put on mascara or anything that would be especially hard to come off without makeup remover, so the process of cleaning her face takes almost no time at all.

She turns off the faucet and feels for the paper towels, eventually grabbing them and drying her hands and face. She looks in the mirror and notices her fake eyelashes have barely managed to hold on, so she removes them and throws them into the trashcan along with some of her paper towels. She turns the sink back on begins cleaning her body, a bit rougher this time as she gets the patches of mud off of her. She goes until she feels as clean as she can possibly feel using a random bathroom sink at a fancy building, eventually turning off the faucet and throwing away the paper towels so she can dig in her backpack for some new clothes to wear.

Her hands eventually settle on some soft and cotton-like material, so she pulls the two items out and is met with a huge and plain black t-shirt as well as a simple circle skirt that looked like it would barely reach her knees. She sighs to herself, glad Gajeel had at least tried to pack her some nice clothes, but….

'_Gajeel really doesn't have a sense of style…'_

She'd asked him to get her some clothes from the flea market or a thrift store of some sort since she _obviously_ couldn't just bring her own clothes. Her walking around the city with a bunch of designer made and tailored outfits would have her sticking out like a sore thumb and that's the exact opposite of what she wants. If she'd known he'd pick out stuff like this though then she probably would have gone with him, but her complaint was too little too late. She sighs as she peers into the bag one last time, hopeful to find shoes or socks or something, but she comes out empty-handed and a bit disappointed. She doesn't blame Gajeel or anything since he probably didn't expect her to be chased through the woods and lose her shoes, but she couldn't help but despair how she'd be walking around the city barefoot and liable to step in some questionable substances.

She digs around in the bag some more and finds a laptop, a wallet with a fair amount of money, and a phone. There's also a makeup bag, but she's not primarily interested in putting any makeup on her freshly cleaned face. She thankfully finds a hair tie and smiles as she picks any stray leaves out of her hair and finger combs her slightly wavy locks, stopping once she's free from as many tangles as possible. She pulls her hair up into a fairy messy high ponytail and slips off her contacts, reaching into her bag to put on a pair of simple black glasses, big enough to be stylish yet not big enough to look like oversized goggles. She also pulls a huge black trash bag out of the bookbag, planning to use that for the dress and body shaper. Somehow, despite herself, she wanted the dress. It's special to her despite the girl not wanting to get married in it _today_.

She steps out of the bathroom, her bookbag on her shoulders and all of her precious items neatly packed away into it. She also has the black trash bag in hand, so she steps up to the chair holding the dirtied dress and picks up the dress and body shaper, stuffing them into the trash bag and tying the bag up tightly.

Just as she's about to exit the dressing room, she spots herself in the mirror and really gives herself a good long look. She looks _normal_. The normality of it all wouldn't be interesting to many, but to her it's something special. She can't help the big, almost giddy grin that graces her face at the sight. She was never all that keen on the fancy clothes she was expected to wear nor the heavy makeup. However, she was always expected to "represent her family properly" so she'd never really had a choice in the matter, always having to put on the uncomfortable clothes and the suffocating makeup just to please her family and their esteemed guests. Gajeel had been the only one to be her safe haven from all that, not really having any expectations for her except that she be a decent human being. Frankly, without him, Juvia may have been much more snooty, but with him she'd managed to figure herself out and stay fairly humble.

Juvia snaps out of her thoughts and throws herself one last smile in the mirror as she cracks open the dressing room door, slowly peering out of it and checking both ends of the hall for any possible witnesses of her sneaking. Thankfully, no one is there, so she slowly tiptoes down the hall and out the front door. She sighs in relief and wipes some imaginary sweat from her brow as she basks in her glory.

"Juvia is getting good at being sneaky," the girl mutters happily.

She walks along the building's perimeter and just as she is about to end up on the main street, the still smiling girl suddenly feels a hand on her shoulder. Before she has the chance to say anything, a surprising amount of strength pulls her backward and into the mysterious man's chest. She looks up at him, ready to employ some form of self-defense when she recognizes it as the handsome spiky-haired man from before. He's sweating, panting heavily as he looks cautiously in front of him, seemingly inspecting if the coast is clear. Just as Juvia is about to tell him what's on her mind when he covers her mouth with his hand, her muffled words falling flat against his hands.

"Shhh, shhh! I'm sorry, but I really need a favor," the man whispers harshly, hoping Juvia will get the message and be quiet for a few moments. She complies for only a few milliseconds, immediately biting his hands harshly, the boy reeling in pain as he feels his skin almost begin to break under her harsh bite.

"Ow!"

"What's wrong with you?! You can't just touch Juvia like that!"

Still looking down at his hand in exaggerated hurt, Juvia huffs as she begins to walk off, no longer wanting to deal with the handsome, but creepy boy, but he calls out to her.

"Wait, wait! I'll pay you anything you want!"

Juvia immediately stops in her tracks. Though she has money, she isn't stupid to think it'll last forever and it'll probably take some time before she can get a secure job. She turns to look at the boy, a dubious expression on her face.

"Anything?"

"Yes, anything."

"Is it illegal?"

Juvia can't believe she's actually contemplating it, but something about this guy gave her chills and just froze her in her tracks. Well, _almost _froze her in her tracks once she really was planning on just leaving him high and dry, but even as she considered walking away the boy remained on her mind. Something about him was almost irresistible to her and she'd never felt that way about anything before and she couldn't quite ignore the innate curiosity she had for the boy.

"No, you don't have to do anything illegal. It'll just uncomfortable, but only for tonight."

Juvia immediately takes it the wrong way, her cheeks and ears turning fire engine red as she clutches her chest in surprise.

"You…! What?! Juvia didn't think you'd be such a pervert!"

"What?! What…? No, no, not like that!"

Now it's the mysterious man's turn to turn red, him feeling quite embarrassed as his cheeks flush and he scratches his cheek awkwardly. He sighs and walks closer to her, Juvia eyeing him suspiciously but not really being scared of the boy. Something told her she didn't need to be scared of him.

"Just trust me," the man says as he outstretches his hand toward Juvia, waiting for her to take it. She hesitantly eyes his hand, still a bit unsure of it all. Taking the hand of a random handsome stranger to do something she doesn't know much about for money? It sounds like a textbook example of stranger danger, but she still can't help but feel curious about the boy.

"What's your name?"

"Gray," he replies, still silently asking for her hand as he looks straight into her eyes.

Mesmerized by his gaze, Juvia places her hand in his, Gray clutching onto her dainty fingers gently and smirking cooly at her. She immediately feels his warmth and his dark blue eyes entrance her, the mysterious yet gentle qualities of his irises assuring her that he will be no trouble at all. He quickly turns on his heel and starts walking her out of the alleyway, resolve clear on his face.

"Tonight, you are my fiance!"

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**Author's Note:** Thanks for reading! If you like this fanfic please support it by following and reviewing. This is being written by Rubymilk from Fiverr and based from my fanfic storyline.


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